Chinese Economics Thread

[Ultra]

Found article I read:


"An average PC can perform in the tens or hundreds of megaflops -- millions of calculations per second. A supercomputer like Purple at Livermore can calculate 100 teraflops -- 100 million million calculations per second.

Using this ability to think faster, Purple can simulate the explosion of a nuclear weapon -- from the moment the button is pressed to the point when the bomb detonates.

In just a just a few billionths of a second, many complex systems interact to create a nuclear explosion. To replicate that process accurately, Purple must calculate very fast.

In 1994 it would have taken the world's fastest computer 6,000 years to complete the highly classified "button to bang" simulation, says Goodwin. It took Purple about six weeks.

Purple was conceived by the Department of Energy and built by IBM at a cost of $290 million to test the nation's nuclear stockpile."

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Okay, so its not realtime back then (6 weeks), and ASC Purple had a performance of Rmax 75 teraflops, while Tianhe-2 has a Rmax of 33.8 petaflops (33800 teraflops)... so it took 6 weeks (3628800 seconds) while Tianhe-2 is about 450 times faster - which translate to Tianhe-2 be able to crunch those nuclear simulation in just 8064 seconds which translate to just a little over 2 hours for Tianhe-2 to perform these nuclear simulation. Mind you Tianhe-2 is not even in the most optimal network topology configuration - when it does (they are waiting to move the supercomputer over) it will be twice as fast - meaning it will be able to perform the task in under 1 hour which makes it almost trivial (start the simulation and go for lunch and it is done when you get back!)

But in order for anyone to perform the nuclear simulation at realtime - an

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supercomputer is required. And currently most experts project that we will reach exaFLOPS in 2018.

 

[Blackstone]

I am sorry I don't see your point. US is using selective "embargo" on Chinese institutions, namely the SUPERCOMPUTER CENTERS - they are not banning Intel chips from being sold to Chinese public or companies, just these supercomputer centers. So it is quite obvious they simply do not want competition from them - they know if Chinese government really wants to, they can buy these chips covertly even if they ban intel chips on all of China. But they didn't - they only ban these supercomputer centers. Not only that - the planned Aurora supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory will have a 180 petaflop capacity - something that's several order of magnitutde faster than the current Tianhe-2 (33 petaflops in current network topology configuration - in optimum network configuration it will be 50) - as if US just wants to make sure they win this round.

The american establishment knows Chinese are only building thse supercomputers for bragging rights - the chinese are far behind in term of utilization of these hardwares due to their infant software industry. Researchers have criticized Tianhe-2 for being difficult to use. "It is at the world's frontier in terms of calculation capacity, but the function of the supercomputer is still way behind the ones in the US and Japan," says Chi Xuebin, deputy director of the Computer Network and Information Centre. "Some users would need years or even a decade to write the necessary code", he added.

Basically the US knows these hardwares still pose no threat to the american interest as its nothing more than bragging rights for China (national pride). So the purpose of this policy of banning supercomputer centers in China access to Intel chips is then purely political - so they can snub China's nose of being No.1 in the supercomputer world.

I say military-related reasons for banning sales of advanced chips for the Tianhe-2/3/4/5..., because the quoted article mentioned Tianhe's use for modeling nuclear weapons. As for taking years to write SW, I'd give Chinese cyber-thieves and SW engineers a lot more credit than that.

 

[Franklin]

The Sunway Blue Light Supercomputer in Jinan China build back in 2011 stood at number 65 in the global top 500 as of november 2014. It uses China's domestic ShenWei processor. The ShenWei processor is developed for military use. So if there is a supercomputer in China that will be used for nuclear explosion simulation it will likely be this one.

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[AssassinsMace]

Nuclear weapons are the old excuse that scares people into going along with whatever agenda. What's to stop a Chinese company like Lenovo from ordering those Intel chips and just transferring them over? They think everything in China is state-owned anyway. They didn't do an outright ban of all of China because then Intel would lose a lot of money. It's a superficial gesture just like the FBI indicting those PLA officers for cyber espionage. It's all about making it look like they're being tough on China. Not surprising it's around the time AIIB is seen as a victory for China at the expense of the US.

 

[PanAsian]

Does anyone have the full list of locations? This is definitely a serious crackdown, no conferences in Vegas either I bet!

For those not familiar with the US, Las Vegas, Nevada is a tourism city mainly based around casinos and nightlife but (or thereby) is also a popular locale for private industry conferences.

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Internet | Fri May 1, 2015 4:34am EDT Related: WORLD, TECH, CHINA
No meetings at tourist hotspots, China reminds officials
BEIJING

(Reuters) - China's top graft buster took the unusual step on Friday of plastering its website with pictures of 21 top Chinese tourist sites where officials are banned from holding meetings, a reminder of its crackdown on extravagance and corruption.

The government issued rules in September to stop such meetings at these hot spots, saying they were a waste of public funds and had ignited popular anger.

As the country marked the Labour Day holiday, the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection's normally quite staid website posted pictures of the 21 no-go zones under the caption: "Though these sites are good, just don't meet there!"

The sites include the Badaling sector of the Great Wall outside of Beijing, the old summer residence of the Qing emperors at Chengde and the beach resort of Sanya, which China likes to style its answer to Hawaii or Bali.

"For goodness sake, don't go to these famous scenic sites for meetings, got it?" the watchdog added.

Officials have been known to use the excuse they are on official business to get the government to pay for holiday trips.

Since President Xi Jinping's appointment in 2013, the government has cracked down on official corruption and extravagance in China, where the flaunting of personal and often illicit wealth and wasteful public spending has led to widespread criticism of the ruling Communist Party.

On Friday, the vice chairman of state-owned China National Nuclear Corp was sacked for misappropriating government funds while traveling to tourist spots during two trips to Argentina in January and September 2013.

(Story refiles to correct typo in first paragraph to "unusual" from "usual")

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

[A.Man]

What the Kentucky Derby Owes to China

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If it weren’t for KFC’s giant Asian consumer base, the annual classic would be a much poorer event.

By ZACHARY KARABELL

May 02, 2015

As hundreds of thousands congregate in Louisville this weekend for a classic American ritual, the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby, they will find it hard not to notice of one of the most prominent local sponsors of the event, Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, known to the world as “Kentucky Fried Chicken.”


Yum and KFC are staples of Louisville and long-time sponsors of the Derby. Yet the American company was recently tempted to move away from Kentucky to Irvine, Calif. Why? Because its business is increasingly detached not just from the American heartland but from America in general. Yum and its brands KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (based in Irvine), are still powerful, but less because of continued success in the United States than because of stunning growth in China.

Indeed, without tens of millions of Chinese buying fried food conjured up by a Kentucky colonel named Harlan Sanders, Louisville might no longer have one of its larger employers, and the Derby itself might be a smaller, sadder affair. Kentucky Fried Chicken is increasingly a Chinese fast-food restaurant chain that happens to be headquartered in Louisville. So raise a julep, and give a toast of thanks to the multitudes of Chinese who are making it all possible. (Recently the new CEO of the company, Greg Creed, announced that after some consideration, the company would keep its global headquarters in Louisville along with its more than 1,000 workers.)

The threat of China surpassing the United States as a manufacturing powerhouse has been a theme in American life and politics for more than a decade.

Less understood, however, is that this isn’t a one-way street. The story of KFC over the past twenty-five years shows that China has also seen American goods and brands become part and parcel of everyday life in the Middle Kingdom. As China makes its cumbersome uncertain shift away from an economy that rests on the production of low-cost exports, its billion plus consumers are increasingly consuming goods that if not technically made in America are still, at heart, American made.

KFC first set up shop in China in the late 1980s at a time when the company’s U.S. operations were starting to founder. Soon enough, with some helpful tweaks to the brand and skilled Taiwanese managers in Mainland China, KFC was outstripping McDonald’s in China and most domestic Chinese competitors, opening up hundreds of new locations a year and showing much greater profitability per store than comparable franchises in the United States. Fried chicken, especially fried chicken associated with capitalism and wealth, became not a cheap meal-on-the-go but an aspirational brand with a high price tag. Eating at KFC in America may have come to signal a need or craving for greasy calories; in China dining at KFC was a sign of making it in the making class.

By 2008, on the eve of the global financial crisis, less than 7 percent of KFC outlets were in China but those accounted for 20 percent of the entire global profits of Yum! Brands. Then troubles began, with tainted chicken supplies in China leading to a sharp drop in business. Meanwhile, though Taco Bell held up, Pizza Hut fell far behind Dominos, while Kentucky Fried Chicken in the United States lost even more luster, and saw ailing franchises and mediocre profits.

In the past couple of years, however, Yum has resumed its stellar growth in China. There are now 7,000 KFC and Pizza Huts spread across 1,000 cities in China. They account for nearly 35 percent of the company’s global business and that percentage is growing in both absolute and relative terms. Americans tend to focus on China when there is fear: fear of low-cost Chinese goods or fear of China’s regional ambitions in the Pacific. But for the vast Chinese middle class, American represents not just wealth for desirable–and trusted–brands. Even when those brands have safety issues, they are often more trusted to address them than comparable Chinese companies.

As the Chinese government works assiduously to build up its domestic market and reduce its dependence on exports and state-sponsored infrastructure products, it has become an ever-more robust and vital market for American companies that are selling goods and services to that emerging world. KFC, Nike, Ford, GM, Coach, Starbucks, Apple, all of those and hundreds more populate Chinese daily life, and shape it intimately.

The fact that KFC appeals to Chinese consumers says nothing about whether the food is healthy or whether such consumerism is ultimately a boon. But it does say that the story of us-vs-them, especially notable now during the acrimonious debates over expanded Pacific trade pacts, misses the larger fact that it is us and them, and that the health and future fate of some of the beacons of American capitalism depend on the willingness of Chinese consumers to buy their products.

Yum managed to save a flailing American business by plunging into China. So did countless other companies. We might think about that as we celebrate a proud American tradition this weekend.

Zachary Karabell is head of global strategy at Envestnet and author of

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. He is a contributing editor at Politico Magazine.

 

[shen]

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Chimerica in Decline?
It is not America in decline, but Chimerica, the hybrid phantom state that was to be the acme of market-based integration.
...
“Anyone who regards an impending war as certain is helping on its occurrence, precisely through his certainty. Anyone who regards peace as certain grows carefree and unintentionally impels us into war. Only he who sees the peril and does not for one instant forget it, is able to behave in a rational fashion and to do what is possible to exorcise it.”

 

[Blackstone]

Question for those in the know, does Xi Jinping's prohibition on "weird architecture" extends to Chinese firms in foreign lands?

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Chang's portfolio includes a $4-billion master-planned community in St. Petersburg, Russia, for Greenland Group. Chang also helped develop large-scale projects on virgin land in China before Greenland Chairman Zhang Yuliang selected her to helm Metropolis and an even larger mixed-use project in New York as the company took a big leap into the U.S. real estate market.

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[AssassinsMace]

Does anyone have the full list of locations? This is definitely a serious crackdown, no conferences in Vegas either I bet!

For those not familiar with the US, Las Vegas, Nevada is a tourism city mainly based around casinos and nightlife but (or thereby) is also a popular locale for private industry conferences.

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Well if Chinese officials are having meetings in Vegas, they should be shot. The bugging of the Chinese Air Force One should tell any official doing so they should be executed just for stupidity alone.

 

[broadsword]

What the Kentucky Derby Owes to China

Not just KFC, McDonald is also in decline in the US owing to the popularity of Mexican food. As a foodie, I envy those living in the US who have access to Chipotle, which has healthier and more mouth-watering offerings.